If you have kids and haven’t had to perform the panicked check of the toy box for recalled toys this summer, count yourself lucky. In the last week, four more recalls of toys with potentially hazardous levels of lead paint, all made in China, have been announced. And there is no end in sight as increased safety checks will likely produce even more recalls.
While toy makers scramble to gain control of the situation, the US government and toy retailers have also stepped up to offer additional scrutiny. China says it too is increasing quality controls.
The US government is taking a closer look at American safety standards. A hearing on toy safety will be held in September by a House subcommittee and a Senate committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is investigating whether the Consumer Product Safety Commission has enough resources to protect the public.
Wanting to reassure customers before the important holiday season, Wal-Mart has asked all toy manufacturers to send testing documentation for toys in shipment or on the shelves. The world’s largest retailer says it also has increased its independent reviews, now checking 50% of all toys, or about 200 each day. The company plans to share its test results with the manufacturers as well as other retailers. Another idea being bounced around is that of a “safety seal” that proves that a toy has passed independent safety tests.
On a personal note, our family thought we owned one of the 70,000 toys in last week’s Schylling recall — a Thomas and Friends top. While we later were relieved to discover that we had one of the safe newer versions with a plastic handle, I was underwhelmed with the response from the company. I had e-mailed Schylling, as the company president said to do in a letter posted on the company’s Web site, to find out next steps for recalled items. That was one week ago and I’ve not received a response, not even an auto-generated reply. It turns out that the company possibly knew about the lead problems back in 2002 but didn’t issue a recall then, so Schylling probably has bigger things to worry about.
**An update: I did get an e-mail back from Schylling two weeks after I contacted the company, giving me the information for how to return a recall and a direct phone line to call. Weirdly, while our top ended up not being a recalled item, the toy did break in the meantime. What are the odds?
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